


Privilege

by liairene



Category: Late Night (2019)
Genre: Canon Compliant, F/M, Fluff and more fluff, Post-Canon, What Comes Next
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-11
Updated: 2020-04-11
Packaged: 2021-03-02 02:28:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,631
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23587642
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/liairene/pseuds/liairene
Summary: An absurd amount of post-canon Tom/Molly fluff as they move from dating to marriage and beyond.
Relationships: Tom Campbell/Molly Patel
Comments: 2
Kudos: 17





	Privilege

Molly looked up at Tom. “You’re thinking. What are you thinking about?”

“I’m not thinking.”

She pulled herself slightly upright. “You’re thinking so loudly that I can hear it. What’s going on?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know. I’m just thinking about how I grew up with so much…I guess you’d call it privilege? And my kids will have less privilege than I had.”

Molly sat all the way upright. “What do you mean?”

He adjusted himself awkwardly. “I just, I mean…I went to Harvard because that’s what people do in my family. I got a job on the show because my dad had worked there. We assumed that everything would be the same with Hayes.”

“But?”

“But I’m white.”

“Yeah, I know, babe.”

He spoke slowly as if uncertain of himself. “And my kids-our kids-won’t be.”

He felt Molly stiffen. “Is that a problem?”

“No,” Tom said firmly. “That’s not it. It’s just that I never realized that being a white guy named Tom Campbell made my life a whole lot easier than your life has been. And then I thought about us having kids and our kids might have my last name.”

“Might have,” Molly repeated in a teasing tone.

“But they’re not going to be white. And that is fine. But I accused you of being a diversity hire.”

“And I kind of was, babe.”

“But you deserved that job. And I don’t want people to look at our kids and think that they only got to be where they are because someone wanted to make sure that there were enough brown people in the room.”

Molly smiled. “Oh, babe.”

“What?”

“I just like that you’re thinking about _our_ kids.”

* * *

“Tom, I just don’t get it.”

Tom looked across the table at his younger brother. “You don’t get what?”

“You and Molly,” Hayes replied. “It just doesn’t make sense.”

“What do you mean? We’ve been dating for over a year. We are getting married.”

His younger brother sighed. “Just look at it. You went to Harvard. You’ve been writing for Katherine forever. You’re smart. You’re funny. You’re good-looking. And Molly? She went to a community college and worked at a chemical plant. She got her job because Katherine wanted them to hire a woman or whatever. I know you like working with her, but I just don’t get your relationship.”

“Hayes, I’m almost forty, and I guess that means I see things differently than you do. Yeah, I went to Harvard while Molly went to community college. I got my job because of Dad. She got hers for reasons that I’d rather not talk about. But we’ve both earned our jobs. We’re both good at our jobs.”

“Okay, but that doesn’t mean that you have to marry her. What do you two have in common besides work?”

“Goals, dreams, sense of humor, and that’s just a beginning,” Tom said firmly. “Like I said, I’m almost forty. I want to settle down and get married. I want a family. Molly wants those things too, and I want them with her.”

“But you want them with someone who looks like her? I mean…c’mon! You’re the monologue writer for Katherine Newbury. You could have a seriously hot chick.”

“First, I’m the co-monologue writer. Second, I have a seriously hot chick. And she’s my co-monologue writer.” He paused for a moment. “Hayes, I really hope that one day you understand why I’m marrying Molly.”

His brother shook his head. “Well, I don’t get it now. She’s just not in your league.”

Tom snorted. “I disagree. I think that she might be out of my league. In addition to being gorgeous, she’s also funny as hell and smart. She’s not easily intimidated. She knows how to put me in my place, and I need that, Hayes. And you know what else? She’s the sexiest woman I’ve ever known because of all of that.”

* * *

When Tom got home, Molly was sitting in bed reading. He immediately climbed onto the bed and kissed her. “Babe, you are unbelievably gorgeous, and I really hope you know how much I love you.”

“Oh god,” she sighed putting her book down. “What did your brother do?”

“Why does this have to have anything to do with my brother?” he asked as he took off his shoes and settled himself on the bed next to his fiancée.

“Because you got drinks with Hayes this evening, and then as soon as you walked in here, the first that you didn’t wasn’t asking me how my evening was or asking how I am. You told me that I’m gorgeous and you love me. And I love you, and I appreciate the compliment. But something tells me that your brother said or did something that upset you.”

Tom sighed. “You know how Hayes is. He apparently felt a need to tell me all of the reasons why you’re not good enough for me.”

“I guess we don’t need to buy him a Christmas present this year.”

He smiled and wrapped his arm around her. “I told him that it’s more likely that you’re out of my league.”

Molly rolled her eyes before leaning into his chest. “I don’t know if I agree with that…”

“Nope, we don’t have to agree about this. You just have to let me think it.”

She smiled. “I love you, Tom, and I’m really glad that you decided to take a chance on a kind of chubby very Indian girl.”

“Well, I’m very glad that an incredibly gorgeous Indian girl with an amazing body decided to take a chance on me,” he replied before kissing her.

* * *

“And now it is my great honor to present to you, for the first time as husband and wife, Thomas Campbell and Molly Patel-Campbell,” Katherine Newbury pronounced.

Tom and Molly kissed and then began the walk up the aisle. She grinned as they walked. “You know what this means, don’t you?”

“I can kiss you whenever I want?” he teased.

“You’re stuck with me for life, Mister,” she replied.

He laughed. “You know that you didn’t have to change your last name.”

“Give it up, Tom. I wanted to do it. And anyway? I’m still going to use Patel professionally.”

“Well, I’m glad you’re maintaining some distance from me professionally.”

“Oh shut up,” she said before kissing him again.

“Okay lovebirds,” Hayes said as he joined them in the atrium of the botanical garden. “Break it up.”

“It’s our wedding day,” his new sister-in-law told him. “We can do what we want.”

Hayes shook his head. “You two, you’re something else. I’m glad you guys found each other.”

“Thanks,” Molly said with a smile.

“You mean that?” Tom asked holding his bride close.

“Yeah, I don’t get it, but I think you guys make sense somehow. Like, I see you guys together, and even though you don’t make sense on paper, it’s like you just fit together.”

* * *

“Hey, babe, I need to stop at CVS on the way home,” Molly said as she met Tom outside his office one snowy evening about six months after their wedding. They had decided that despite the fact that they worked together on the monologue it would be healthier for both of them and their relationship if they didn’t share an office.

“Do you want me to come with you?” he asked. “Or is this like a tampon run?”

His wife slapped him playfully. “I don’t need you to come with me. I’ll just see you at home.”

“Do you want me to order dinner?”

“Please.”

“Does Thai sound good?”

She smiled. “Perfect, get me my usual? I’ll see you in a bit.”

* * *

Molly arrived home about half an hour after Tom. “Everything good?” he asked.

“Yep.” She dropped her purse and a CVS bag on the counter. “Everything’s good.”

“Awesome. I ordered about fifteen or twenty minutes ago, and they said it’ll be here in thirty minutes, so ten minutes now?”

“Great,” she replied before kissing his cheek. “I’m going to get changed really quickly.”

He smiled as she headed to their room. “I can get you a glass of wine while you do that if you want?”

Molly turned around suddenly. “Okay, about that…”

He looked at her. “Yes?”

“We need to talk about why I went to CVS.”

He raised his eyebrows. “Yeah? We do?”

She nodded. “Yeah, we do.”

He grabbed the bag. “Can I open it?”

“Sure, but Tom, I haven’t done anything with them yet.”

He looked in the bag and then at his wife. “Molly…”

“We can’t do anything tonight. You’re supposed to do it when you wake up in the morning.”

“Okay,” he replied as he put the bag down. “Do you want to talk about it or be distracted?”

Molly walked towards her husband. “Right now, I want to go change clothes and then we can talk about it. Sound good?”

“Yep.”

* * *

Ten minutes later, they were settled on the couch with Thai food. Molly looked at Tom. “I’m going to guess that your first question is about how long I’ve thought I might be pregnant.”

“Yeah.”

“A couple days,” she replied. “I’m more than a week late, and that might be a fluke, but we’re not doing anything to…”

“Yeah.”

“So this morning I decided that it’s time to bite the bullet and find out. Well, it’ll be time tomorrow morning.”

“How are you feeling?”

“Nervous mostly.”

He looked at her. “About what?”

“I want to be pregnant,” she said. “And there’s a part of me that’s really hopeful but there’s also a part of me that’s like well, what if my body is just screwing with me and I’m not pregnant. And I don’t know how I feel about that.”

Tom grabbed his wife’s hand. “Hey, you know that you can talk to me about this, right?”

“It just seemed silly to bother you when I didn’t know if I was actually pregnant or if I just have a stupid body.”

“In the future, Molly? I want to know. I don’t care if it’s your body being stupid. You’re my wife. I want to know what’s bothering you.”

She sighed. “You’re great, you know? But Tom, I really want to be pregnant. I want to have a baby.”

“I know.”

Molly turned to look at her husband. “What about you? How do you feel about this?”

“About a baby?”

“About the idea of me being pregnant and us having a baby in the relatively near future,” she affirmed.

He put a hand on her shoulder. “I like it. I mean, we’ve talked about having kids for a while, and if you are pregnant, it would be pretty amazing.”

“And if I’m not?”

“Then we’ll just keep trying until you are.”

“But…”

Tom held up a hand. “We will have a baby, Molly. I promise. But right now, let’s eat dinner and watch a show and go to bed. And tomorrow morning, we’ll see. Okay?”

She let out a breath and nodded. “Okay, okay, we can do this. Right, Tom?”

He kissed her cheek. “We can.”

* * *

Molly bolted out of bed at five thirty-seven the next morning. She couldn’t wait for her six o’clock alarm. She took her phone and tiptoed quietly to the bathroom.

She was sitting on the bathroom floor clutching her cell phone and hugging her knees when her husband tapped on the door. “Molls, are you alright?”

“Come in, honey.”

The door slid open, and Tom stepped in. “What’s going on?”

“I’m waiting,” she replied holding up her phone.

“Would you like some company?”

“Yeah.”

He slid down next to her. “How much longer do we have?”

She held up her phone. “Just under two minutes.”

“Did you do all three tests at once?”

She nodded before leaning against him. “You know me.”

He rested his head against hers. “It’s going to be okay, Molls.”

“Did I wake you up?”

Tom snorted. “Molly, how long have we shared a bed? You should know by now that you’re not as good at sneaking out of bed as you think you are.”

She smiled faintly. “So yes?”

“You need to work on bouncing the mattress a little less when you get out of bed,” he told her. “But if you’re pregnant, this probably isn’t the best time to work on that.”

“Tom?”

“Yeah?”

“You’re not very diplomatic.”

He kissed her forehead. “That’s okay. I still got a pretty girl to marry me.”

As Molly rolled her eyes, her phone went off. “Oh gosh, oh gosh, Tom? What do I do?”

“Turn off the timer. It’s annoying,” he told her as he stood up. “Before I look at them, do you want me to tell you or do you want me to give them to you?”

“Tell me?” she squeaked with her hands over her face.

Tom smiled at her before turning to the three pregnancy tests on the counter. “Molls, are you ready?”

“No, but tell me anyway.”

“Molly,” he said kneeling in front of her. “Molls, we’re having a baby. You’re pregnant.”

“No! Show me.”

Tom laughed as he handed her a pregnancy test. “They all say the same thing.”

She took it and looked at it for a minute before looking up at him. “Tom, I’m pregnant.”

“Yeah.”

“We’re having a baby.”

“I know,” he said, his voice shaking.

“Tom, you’re going to be a dad. I’m going to be a mom. I’m going to be someone’s mom.” She pointed to her stomach. “There’s a baby in there. Our baby is in there.”

He smiled as he pressed his forehead against hers. “Yeah.”

Molly uncurled her body. “Tom, I’m…I don’t know what to say. I have to call my doctor today.”

“Yeah, that’s a good idea. Can I?” he asked reaching out a hand.

“Yeah.”

He pressed his hand against her stomach. “That’s our baby in there.”

“You know that I’m not going to start showing for ages. First babies take longer to show than later pregnancies, and plus I’m not the skinniest to begin with.”

“It’s okay,” he told her. “I’ll still know that our baby is in there.”

* * *

Molly’s doctor confirmed that she was in fact pregnant. From there, the first trimester was a long haul of nausea and saltines. Molly offered Tom numerous suggestions of what she wanted to do to the person who had coined the name “morning sickness” since “it seems like my nightly routine has turned into get home from work, change clothes, and collapse completely overwhelmed by nausea and dizziness.”

Her second trimester saw a gradual lessening of the nausea such that when she got to work after her sixteen-week appointment, Molly told Tom that she wanted a donut.

“A donut?” he repeated. “Are you sure that it isn’t going to end up in the toilet in an hour? You know that you don’t have that women’s bathroom to yourself anymore.”

She laughed. “Hey, I’ll have you know that I haven’t thrown up in a week.”

“And the nausea?”

She held her hands up. “I feel fine. I feel good.”

“That’s good. No, that’s great. Do you want to get Thai tonight to celebrate?”

She laughed. “I’m afraid of doing that, babe. I feel like that’s tempting fate. Maybe we should go to something a little less spicy.”

He kissed her cheek. “Whatever you want.”

* * *

Four weeks later, they were back at the doctor’s office for her twenty-week appointment. Molly was squirming uncomfortably as she waited on the exam table. Her husband squeezed her hand. “What’s wrong?”

“The gel is going to be cold, and the office is already cold.”

“And?”

“And I still don’t think that I look like I’m pregnant,” she said quietly. “I just look like I ate a really big burrito for lunch.”

Tom put his hand on her belly. “First off, lunch isn’t for at least four hours yet. And second, you do not feel like you ate a big burrito.”

She smiled. “Thanks. I’m sorry, Tom. It’s just…I just feel like this pregnancy is playing on some of my insecurities.”

“Really?” he teased. “I hadn’t noticed it.”

Molly slapped him playfully. “Hey now, I’m carrying your baby. You have to be nice to me.”

Any reply Tom might have had was prevented by the doctor’s entrance into the room.

* * *

Tom had not expected that out of all of his coworkers Burditt would be the most interested in the baby. He also was not expecting to find Burditt at his desk when he came into the office after the doctor’s appointment with Molly. “What are you doing here?”

“I want to see pictures.”

“You share an office with my wife. She has all of the same pictures that I do.”

The older man shrugged. “She talks a lot. You’ll just show me the baby and tell me the news.”

“You’re going to have to listen to her anyway.” He paused. “In fact, just for that, I’m not telling you. You have to go ask Molly.”

Burditt smiled. “Or maybe I like the dopey look you get on your face when you talk about the baby and I want to see it.”

“You like the…I don’t get a dopey look on my face!”

“Oh yes, you do. It’s okay, kid. It’s a dad thing.”

Tom smiled. “Should I tell you?”

“You know that you want to tell someone.”

“I told my parents and my brother.”

“On the phone,” Burditt replied. “You get to tell me face to face.”

At that, Tom reached into his pocket as his face contorted into the dopey grin that Burditt had mentioned. He held out a picture. “It’s a girl.”

Burditt took the picture and smiled. “Congratulations. Hopefully, she doesn’t come out looking like you.”

Tom took the picture back. “Well, given her mom’s genetics, I don’t think that she’s going to look much like a Campbell at all.”

“You know that’s a joke, right? It’s a thing that you say to a guy when he tells you that he’s going to have a daughter.”

“Sorry,” Tom said. “When I told my dad, he made some comment about how he’s going to have an Indian granddaughter who won’t look like our family at all.”

Burditt flinched. “What did you say?”

“I told him that he should have figured that out when I got engaged to an Indian-American woman two years ago. And then I told him that she could still inherit my nose or my height; she’s just going to have darker skin than him or me, and I’m fine with that.”

“I hope she doesn’t get your nose. Molly’s would look better on a girl.”

“Get out of here. Go work or something.”

* * *

“So, you met Tom because of my show, right?” Katherine asked.

Molly nodded. “Yeah.”

“Well, in that case, I think that I should get to be your baby girl’s honorary grandmother.”

“Okay, but wasn’t it Brad who hired me?”

“He hired you at first but that was because I told him to hire a woman. And I’m the one who brought you back.”

“After you fired me,” Molly said.

“But if you think about it, I’m really responsible for your relationship with Tom and thereby for this baby.”

“Okay, but I thought you weren’t a baby person.”

“I’m not really, but I feel like I ought to be more invested in the life of your baby.”

Molly shook her head. “You can call yourself grandma if you want, but then we’re going to expect you to act like it too.”

“What does that mean?”

“You’re going to have to snuggle with my baby.”

Katherine’s eyebrows rose quickly. “We’ll see. Maybe I could just be a sort of disinterested in fairy godmother.”

* * *

Most of Molly and Tom’s male coworkers hadn’t mentioned her pregnancy since congratulating them at their initial announcement. So Molly was somewhat taken aback when Mancuso greeted her at a morning meeting during her twenty-fifth week with “Holy shit, what happened to you last night? You actually look pregnant now.”

Everyone in the room stopped and looked at him. Tom quickly made his way over to his wife and wrapped an arm around her, resting his hand on her belly. Reynolds smacked Mancuso. “What’s wrong with you? You can’t just say that to Molly.”

“What? I know that they told us that she’s pregnant months ago, but she hasn’t really looked like it. You know? I don’t think she had a baby bump or a baby belly or whatever yesterday. But now she does. Like, Molly, you really look like you’re pregnant now.”

Leaning against her husband’s chest Molly gulped. “Uh, thanks, Mancuso? I guess?”

“It’s a good thing. You’re really cute,” he started.

Molly quickly held up a hand. “Okay, now, let’s get to work. We have a job to do, so let’s do it.”

Writers began taking their seats, and Reynolds could be heard scolding Mancuso. But before Molly could leave Tom’s side, he gasped audibly.

She turned. “What?”

“What was that?”

“What?”

He patted her belly. “I felt something. It was like a flutter or something against my hand.”

Molly smiled at him. “She kicked you.”

His eyes were wide and his mouth hung open. “I’ve never felt her before.”

“Well, I think you’ll feel here a lot more in the future. But now, we need to get to work.” And with that she went to her seat next to Burditt.

As they left the conference room later, Burditt looked at Tom. “The dopey look has a friend now.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Yeah, it’s the look that says that if anyone hurts your family you’ll kill them. I like it.”

Tom shook his head. “You’re really enjoying this, aren’t you?”

“Tom, I’ve been sitting at that table with Brad and a bunch of frat boys for a good while now. It’s nice to see one of you grow up and develop a real life.” He shrugged. “Plus, I like giving you a hard time.”

“Thanks, Burditt. That means a lot.”

* * *

The next fifteen weeks flew by. And then a sixteenth week came and went. “I’m overdue, and I hate it,” Molly sighed as she walked into Tom’s office after taping an episode. “I hate it.”

“Technically you’re not overdue. It’s Lucy who is overdue.”

“Well, I’m the one still waddling around here carrying a ten pound bowling ball. Lucy is just curled up inside of me nice and snug. I’m starting to wonder if she’s ever going to come out.”

“Do you want to see if Thai food will coax her out?” he asked as he grabbed his coat and bag. “Are your purse and coat in your office?”

“Thai food probably won’t do anything. She'll probably just be used to it by now.”

Tom put a hand on her shoulder and rubbed. “Indian?”

“Might work, and yes, my stuff is in my office.”

“Stay here. I’ll go get it.”

She smiled and leaned against the wall. “Sounds great, my back is killing me.”

“If she doesn’t come out on her own in the next week, the doctor will induce you.”

“That doesn’t sound as reassuring as you think it does.”

“Sorry,” he replied squeezing her shoulder. “I’ll be back in a minute.”

* * *

After dinner and a few hours of Netflix, Tom got off the couch. “I think I’m going to bed. You coming?”

Molly reached up an arm. “I need help. My back is killing me. Hold on.” She clutched her belly and winced. “Yeah, that hurt. Okay, help me up?”

Her husband helped her to her feet and paused while she got her balance. “Are you okay, babe?”

She winced and grabbed her belly again before beginning to take long breaths. “Honey?”

Tom put a hand on her back. “What’s up?”

“Can you find Dr. Meyers’ number? And maybe get a towel for the floor?”

“How long has this been going on?”

She winced. “Since we left work, but it really picked up in the last ten minutes or so.”

* * *

Thirteen long and chaotic hours later, Lucy Priya Campbell made her debut red-faced and screaming. Dr. Meyers placed Lucy on Molly’s chest, and Molly immediately gasped, “Her hair, Tom, look at her hair.”

Tom nodded unable to say anything.

“Dad, would you like to cut the cord?” a nurse asked.

He nodded again, and she helped him.

“Now we’re going to take Baby, so Mom can deliver the placenta,” the nurse said as she started lifting Lucy.

“Can I hold her first?” Tom asked.

“Usually we’d like to clean her up a little first,” Claire the nurse began.

“That’s okay. If that’s the only reason, I don’t mind that. I just want to hold my daughter.”

The nurse smiled and handed Lucy to him, and as soon as he had her settled in his arms, he knew that the dopey grin that Burditt liked to tease him about was on his face. She wasn’t the first newborn he’d held; he was fifteen when Hayes was born. But this was an experience unlike anything that had come before in his life. He looked down at her full head of black hair, her little button nose, her pink mouth, and everything that made up Lucy. “Hi, baby,” he whispered as tears welled in his eyes. “I’m your daddy. And I’m very happy to meet you.”

She opened her mouth and closed it again.

“If you give me your phone, I can take a picture,” Claire offered.

“Yeah, it’s on the table.”

The nurse grabbed his phone and took a quick picture. “Alright, Dad, now I need to clean this little lady up and find out how much she weighs.”

“Her mother has been comparing her to a ten-pound bowling ball for the past few days,” Tom said as he handed his daughter to the nurse.

Claire smiled. “She’s a good sized baby, and she’s got a good pair of lungs too.”

“She gets those from me,” Molly said.

Tom walked back to his wife and put a hand on her head. “You’re amazing.”

“I’m exhausted.”

“I can imagine.”

She looked up at him. “I forgot. Did you call work?”

He laughed. “Ages ago, I called Brad. We’re good. I’ll have to call HR later to officially start your maternity leave.”

“And you’re taking a week off?”

“I’m taking as long as they let me.”

“Tom?” she said softly.

“Yeah?”

“We have a baby.”

He smiled and kissed her forehead. “I know.”

“I love you,” she whispered.

“I love you too,” he replied.

“Also, I’m really gross. I need a shower.”

Just then, Claire returned. “Here you are.”

Molly reached out and took the baby in her arms. “Hi, Lucy, I’m your mommy. Hi, baby girl!”

“How much does she weigh?” Tom asked.

The nurse smiled. “She’s nine pounds, four ounces and twenty-one inches long. She did very well on everything. She’s a strong little one.”

Lucy yawned, and Tom grinned. “Hey, Molly?”

“Yeah?” she said not taking her eyes off their daughter.

Tom climbed on the bed next to Molly. “I’m really glad that Katherine told Brad that he had to hire a female writer.”

“Yeah, me too,” she replied tapping Lucy’s nose with her finger. “And I’m really glad that we get to raise this little person together.”

“We just need to make sure that she’s as stubborn as her mom and as determined to knock down any barriers in her path.”

“Socially and culturally,” Molly said. “She’s still going to have to follow rules at home; aren’t you, Lucy Priya?”

Tom wrapped his arm around his wife and kissed the top of her head. He was quite certain that his dopey smile was back and that was all right with him.

* * *

**Author's Note:**

> There's probably more where this came from if anyone is interested. For the moment, this story (or set of vignettes) wouldn't leave me alone, so I wanted to share them with others.


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